These biographies are provided if and as supplied, and are in the language(s) of the speaker’s home organization, and are organized alphabetically by last name.
Kyle Browness
As Director of Digital Collections Operations at Library and Archives Canada, Kyle co-manages LAC’s digital preservation program in collaboration with a diverse range of managers and staff with expertise in digital archiving, digital librarianship, digital conservation, technical solution development, and digital preservation. LAC’s digital preservation program is the steward of over 16 petabytes of collection data of national significance to Canadians. LAC program staff are also active members of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC), as well as the CARL Digital Preservation Working Group.
En tant que directeur des Opérations des collections numériques à Bibliothèque et Archives Canada (BAC), Kyle cogère le programme de préservation numérique de BAC en collaboration avec une équipe diversifiée de gestionnaires et de personnel spécialisés dans l’archivage numérique, la bibliothéconomie numérique, la conservation numérique, le développement de solutions techniques, et la préservation numérique. Le programme de préservation numérique de BAC est responsable de la gestion de plus de 16 pétaoctets de données de collection d’importance nationale pour les Canadiens. Le personnel du programme de BAC est également membre actif de la Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), du Consortium international pour la préservation d’Internet (CIPI), ainsi que du Groupe de travail sur la préservation numérique de l’ABRC.
Paul Durand
Paul Durand is the Supervisor of the Military History Research Centre (MHRC) at the Canadian War Museum. Recently, the museum has not only been considering its own digital preservation actions, but given its donation and acquisition trends, as well experiences with some born digital offers of donation, if and how digital collections will come in in the future.
Émilie Fortin
Émilie Fortin (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9717-6840) est bibliothécaire à la gestion des données de recherche et à la préservation numérique à l’Université Laval depuis 2021. Elle est membre de divers comités et a cofondé une communauté de pratique francophone sur la préservation numérique. Elle assiste régulièrement à l’iPRES où elle a proposé deux jeux pédagogiques ainsi qu’une affiche qui s’est méritée une mention d’honneur.
Tanis Franco
Tanis Franco (they/them) is the Archivist at Toronto Metropolitan University where they are responsible for the effective planning, support, expansion, and management of collections and services within the Archives & Special Collections department of the library.
Curtis Frederick
Curtis Frederick is an Assistant Archivist and the University Records Archivist at the University of Calgary Archives and Special Collections, a position he has held since 2020. He is responsible for archiving the institutional records of the University of Calgary and records created about the University of Calgary. He is also the subject archivist for the political, labour, education, and communications and media archives. He has a Master of Information and a Master of Museum Studies from the University of Toronto.
Jason Friedman
Jason Friedman has a BA in History from George Washington University and a Master’s in History from McGill as well as a Master of Information Studies from University of Ottawa. He has worked at CRKN since 2016 and currently serves as Senior Manager, Heritage Services. In his role, he is the lead for the development of the Canadiana collections and ensures that digitization, metadata, and access services meet the needs of members and stakeholders.
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Jason Friedman est titulaire d’un baccalauréat en histoire de l’Université George Washington et d’une maîtrise en histoire de l’Université McGill, ainsi que d’une maîtrise en études de l’information de l’Université d’Ottawa. Il travaille au RCDR depuis 2016 et occupe actuellement le poste de gestionnaire principal des Services du patrimoine. Dans le cadre de ses fonctions, il est responsable du développement des collections de Canadiana et veille à ce que la numérisation, les métadonnées et les services d’accès répondent aux besoins des membres et des intervenants.
Kenton Good
Kenton Good is the Head of Digital Production and Preservation Services at the University of Alberta Library. Since 1996, he has held a variety of roles at the University of Alberta including positions focused on web development, digital infrastructure and IT management.
Meghan Goodchild
Meghan Goodchild is the Research Data Management Librarian at Queen’s University and Scholars Portal of the Ontario Council of University Libraries. At Queen’s Library, Meghan is the lead contact for research data management and collaborates with campus partners to improve workflows and services supporting the research data lifecycle. At Scholars Portal, Meghan works on RDM initiatives for Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository.
Marie Grégoire
Gestionnaire d’expérience et communicatrice au parcours atypique, Marie Grégoire a occupé plusieurs postes de cadre dans de grandes entreprises des secteurs économique et social. Associée fondatrice de TACT Intelligence-conseil, aujourd’hui l’une des agences de communication les plus importantes au Québec, elle a également prêté ses talents aux grandes entreprises IBM, Bell, Desjardins et Zoom Media. En plus d’avoir enseigné à l’UQAM, elle a contribué à plusieurs publications à titre d’auteure. Elle a entre autres participé à la relance de Premières en affaires, un magazine d’information traitant de développement économique au féminin. Elle a été nommée présidente-directrice générale de BAnQ par le Conseil des ministres le 7 juillet 2021. Depuis mai 2024, elle est également Présidente du Réseau francophone numérique.
Susan Haigh
As Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), Susan oversees CARL’s many collaborative initiatives to foster open scholarship and shared infrastructure and advocates federally for research library interests. She also currently serves as chair of the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) and of the Canadian PID Advisory Committee (CPIDAC). Prior to CARL, she held a range of positions at Library and Archives Canada, where she developed a strong interest in the preservation and access of Canada’s digital documentary heritage.
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À titre de directrice générale de l’Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada (ABRC), Susan supervise les nombreuses initiatives de collaboration de l’ABRC visant à favoriser le savoir ouvert et l’infrastructure partagée, et défend les intérêts des bibliothèques de recherche à l’échelle fédérale. Elle est actuellement présidente de la Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) et du Comité consultatif canadien sur les identifiants pérennes (CCCPID). Avant de se joindre à l’ABRC, elle a occupé divers postes à Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, où elle a développé un vif intérêt pour la préservation et l’accès du patrimoine documentaire numérique du Canada.
Geoff Harder
Geoff Harder is Associate University Librarian for a broad range of programs and services at the University of Alberta. This includes digital preservation along with related areas such as research data management, digital repositories, and digitization. He has been actively involved with many national and international digital preservation-related efforts such as Scholaris, CLOCKSS, and Internet Archive Canada. Geoff is the current chair of CARL’s Digital Preservation Working Group.
William Kilbride
William Kilbride is Executive Director of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), a sector-making charity that provides community, advocacy, workforce development, good practice and good governance in digital preservation. William started his career as an archaeologist in the 1990s with an unusual mix of qualifications in computing and archaeology, just at the point when the discipline’s enthusiasm for new technology outstripped its capacity to manage the resulting data. He has worked in a variety of digital preservation roles since, including as Assistant Director of the Archaeology Data Service and Research Manager at Glasgow Museums. In 2020 he was jointly named ‘Information Manager of the Year’ by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, and in 2022 made Honorary Professor in the College of Arts at the University of Glasgow.
Mireille Laforce
Mireille Laforce est directrice du dépôt légal et des acquisitions à BAnQ. Outre la maîtrise en bibliothéconomie et sciences de l’information, elle détient des diplômes universitaires en histoire, en archivistique et en droit. Son équipe actuelle, au cœur du développement des collections de la Bibliothèque nationale est également responsable de l’Agence ISBN pour les éditeurs francophones canadiens.
Sarah Lake
Sarah Lake (she/her) is the Digital Preservation Librarian at Concordia University. Her research interests include sound and moving image preservation, web archiving, and open-source and community-owned digital preservation workflows. She sits on the Association of Canadian Archivists Communications Committee and serves as web administrator for the Bibliographical Society of Canada.
Lisa Lawlis
Lisa Lawlis is an Assistant Archivist at Western University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections and has worked in Municipal and Provincial Archives. Lisa’s work and research focuses on digital forensics, preservation of born digital records, and creating video tutorials to help archival professionals learn about digital preservation.
Nicholas Lobraico
Nicholas Lobraico works as a Heritage Information Analyst at the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN). Since joining CHIN in 2022, he has worked on a major project assessing the digital capacity of the museum sector in Canada and, more recently, has taken the lead on CHIN’s work in digital preservation. He is also currently the Past President of the Association des Bibliothécaires du Québec Library Association (ABQLA).
Andrea Mills
Andrea Mills serves as the Executive Director of Internet Archive Canada, where she brings years of experience in digital preservation and access initiatives. Andrea has overseen a range of digitization projects across academic libraries, archives, and government institutions, developing deep expertise in managing large-scale digital collections with a preservation focus. She leads Internet Archive’s Canadian efforts, driving the creation of a comprehensive Canadian digital library dedicated to preserving and providing equitable access to Canadian heritage and public information. Her commitment to sustainable digital access is rooted in making government and public resources freely available in accessible reading formats, ensuring long-term preservation for future generations.
Lisa Miniaci
Lisa Miniaci occupe le poste de directrice de la conservation et de la numérisation à BAnQ depuis 2018. Son équipe de numérisation alimente BAnQ numérique, une boîte aux trésors de fichiers de documents publiés et d’archives, et sa direction contribue aussi à la réalisation d’un dépôt de préservation numérique pour le patrimoine québécois. Lisa est également membre du comité de préservation et accès au RCDR.
Pascale Montmartin
Titulaire d’une maîtrise en bibliothéconomie et sciences de l’information, Pascale Montmartin travaille à Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec depuis 2006. En tant qu’analyste d’affaires, elle a coordonné le projet d’implantation du système de diffusion des collections numériques et contribué au projet de portail de diffusion grand public des collections : numerique.banq.qc.ca. Depuis 2019, à titre de chef de service des collections numériques et de la conservation, elle se consacre aux problématiques reliées au traitement et à la préservation des documents numériques.
Leanne Olson
Leanne Olson is the Digitization and Digital Preservation librarian at the University of Western Ontario, and a member of the Scholaris Digital Preservation Expert Group.
Anna Perricci
Anna Perricci is the Head of DPC Americas at the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), which is an organization that supports community, advocacy, workforce development, good practice and good governance in digital preservation. Her professional focus is extending the beneficial impact of the DPC’s resources, assets and team members throughout both North and South America. Prior to joining the DPC team, over the course of more than 16 years she provided extensive, expert guidance and strategy to projects in libraries, archives, museums, academic institutions as well as to funding organizations that support them.
Art Rhyno
Art Rhyno is the current Chair of OurDigitalWorld and has been a Systems Librarian at the University of Windsor since 1993. With his wife, Laurie, Art also spent over a decade in the newspaper business via The Essex Free Press, the second oldest family-owned community newspaper in Ontario at the time, and has worked on newspaper digitization projects with OurDigitalWorld and the World Bank.
Elizabeth Schaffer
Elizabeth Shaffer is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Information. Her current research explores tensions and opportunities for archives and digital infrastructures and technologies with a focus on critical enquiry into how policy, practices and systems emerge and evolve in contemporary digital spaces, and particular attention to social justice issues, impacts of colonialism on research and pedagogies, and collections that document traumatic human events. She leads the digital archives team on the SSHRC-funded Transformative Memory International Network research project engaging Indigenous, Black and Southern knowledges in exploring how memory as a mechanism is conceived, documented and practiced in the context of public policy and scholarship on mass atrocity. Elizabeth lives, works and learns on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxw.7mesh (Squamish), St.:lō and Səl.[ lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) peoples.
Julie Shi
Julie Shi is the Digital Preservation Librarian at Scholars Portal, which provides technical services to members of the Ontario Council of University Libraries and institutions across Canada. She is service lead for the hosted digital preservation service Permafrost and the Ontario Library Research Cloud storage network, and coordinates preservation efforts for various Scholars Portal repository services, including the Trustworthy Digital Repository, Borealis, and Scholaris.
Tom J. Smyth
Tom J. Smyth, MA, MISt, PMP is the Manager of the Web and Social Media Preservation Program at Library and Archives Canada. Tom’s work has involved leading LAC’s web archiving efforts since 2009, and digital library and archival program development in digital curation and preservation contexts since 2013. He recently developed and co-hosted a three-part workshop entitled Web Archiving in Program Management Context for the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC). He has been a Steering Committee member of the UK Digital Preservation Coalition’s Web Archiving and Digital Preservation Working Group since 2018, and of the IIPC since 2022.
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Tom J. Smyth, M.A., MISt, PMP est le gestionnaire du programme de préservation web et des médias sociaux à Bibliothèque et Archives Canada. Tom dirige les efforts d’archivage sur le Web de BAC depuis 2009, et le développement de programmes de bibliothèque et d’archives numériques dans des contextes de préservation numériques depuis 2013. Il a récemment créé et co-animé un atelier en trois parties intitulé Web Archiving in Program Management Context pour l’International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC). II est membre du comité directeur du groupe de travail sur l’archivage web et la préservation numérique de l’UK Digital Preservation Coalition depuis 2018, et du IIPC depuis 2022.
Robyn Stobbs
Dr. Robyn Stobbs is the Research Data Management Librarian at Athabasca University, where her role has been expanded to include digital preservation. She collaborates with other units at AU to implement AU’s Institutional Research Data Management Strategy and to expand support for digital preservation. Robyn is a member of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada’s Data Management Plan Expert Group and co-chairs the Preservation Expert Group.
Amanda Tomé
Amanda Tomé is the Preservation Coordinator for the Digital Research Alliance of Canada where she is responsible for preservation activities associated with the Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR). She spends her time crafting digital preservation workflows, developing appraisal and data retention methodologies for research data, preservation planning and investigating interesting and new file formats. Amanda collaborates and participates in various national and international committees.
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Amanda Tomé est la coordonnatrice de la préservation pour l’Alliance de recherche numérique du Canada, où elle est responsable des activités de préservation associés au Dépôt fédéré de données de recherche (DFDR). Elle consacre son temps à l’élaboration des processus de préservation numérique, au développement de méthodologies d’évaluation et de rétention des données de recherche, à la planification de la préservation et à l’étude de nouveaux formats de fichiers intéressants. Amanda collabore et participe à divers comités nationaux et internationaux.
Leslie Weir
Leslie Weir is the Librarian and Archivist of Canada leading Library and Archives Canada since August 2019. Ms. Weir is leading LAC through transformation with the development of the LAC strategic plan through 2030 and strategic priorities (2023-2025), transformation of service and IT infrastructure, as well as the reorganization of its structure to support the achievement of LAC’s mandate all with a focus on people and access. Ms. Weir has played important roles in many transformative moments at the Canadian Research Knowledge Network and in research libraries and archives in Canada. She is one of the founding architects of Scholars Portal, the state-of-the-art research infrastructure in Ontario universities and served as Chair of the Ontario Council of University Libraries. Ms. Weir served as President of Canadiana.org, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries and the Ontario Library Association. She is currently a member of the FAN (Forum of National archivists) Steering Committee, Vice-Chair of CDNL (Conference of Directors of National Libraries) and President-Elect of International Federation of Library Associations.
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Leslie Weir est la bibliothécaire et archiviste du Canada à la tête de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada depuis août 2019. Mme Weir dirige la transformation de BAC par l’élaboration du plan stratégique de BAC jusqu’en 2030 et de ses priorités stratégiques (2023-2025), la transformation des services et de l’infrastructure informatique, ainsi que la réorganisation de sa structure pour soutenir la réalisation du mandat de BAC, tout en mettant l’accent sur les personnes et l’accès. Mme Weir a joué un rôle important dans de nombreux moments de transformation au Réseau canadien de documentation pour la recherche et dans les bibliothèques et archives de recherche au Canada. Elle est l’une des architectes fondatrices du Portail des chercheurs, l’infrastructure de recherche de pointe des universités ontariennes, et a été présidente du Conseil des bibliothèques universitaires de l’Ontario. Mme Weir a également été présidente de Canadiana.org, de l’Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada et de l’Ontario Library Association. Elle est actuellement membre du comité directeur du FAN (Forum des archivistes nationaux), vice-présidente du CDNL (Conference of Directors of National Libraries) et présidente-élu de la Fédération internationale des associations de bibliothécaires.
Natalie Vielfaure
Natalie Vielfaure is the Digital Curation Archivist in the Research Services and Digital Strategies unit of the University of Manitoba Libraries. She holds an MA in History (Archival Studies) from the University of Manitoba, and has previously held positions at the City of Winnipeg Archives, the Centre du patrimoine, Library and Archives Canada, and the Health Sciences Centre Archives/Museum.
Brett Waytuck
Brett Waytuck, president of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, joined the Dr. John Archer Library and Archives as University Librarian in 2016. Prior to coming to the University of Regina, he worked in public, special, government and academic libraries in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario and was, most recently, the Provincial Librarian of Saskatchewan, working with public library systems to support and expand services across the province.
Jessica Ye
Jessica Ye (she/they) is the Metadata Librarian for the University of Saskatchewan working with archival and special collections, digital projects, and any other projects requiring metadata expertise. Their research interests include reparative description, inclusive metadata, and linked open data. They were Toronto Metropolitan University’s first Digital Archivist.
